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Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney (born November 19, 1959) is an American actress. A prolific character actress, Janney has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, seven Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Janney won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the summer of 1984, following her graduation from Kenyon College. After years of minor and uncredited film and television appearances, Janney's breakthrough came with the role of C. J. Cregg in the NBC political drama The West Wing (1999–2006), for which she received four Primetime Emmy Awards. The character was widely popular during the airing of the series and was later recognized as one of the greatest female characters on American television. In 2014, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Margaret Scully on the Showtime period drama Masters of Sex. Since 2013, she has starred as a cynical recovering addict in the CBS sitcom Mom. Her performance on the show has gained her five consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won her two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Janney made her professional stage debut with the Off-Broadway production Ladies and followed with numerous bit parts in various similar productions, before making her Broadway debut in the 1996 revival of Present Laughter. She won Drama Desk Awards and received Tony Award nominations for her performances in the 1997 Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge, and the 2009 original Broadway production of the musical 9 to 5. Her film roles include Private Parts (1997), Primary Colors (1998), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), American Beauty (1999), The Hours (2002), Hairspray (2007), Juno (2007), The Help (2011), The Way, Way Back (2013), Tammy (2014), Spy (2015), Tallulah (2016), and The Girl on the Train (2016). In 2017, her performance as LaVona Golden in the biographical film I, Tonya garnered widespread acclaim and earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Early life and education Janney was born on November 19, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She is the daughter of Macy Brooks (née Putnam), a former actress and homemaker, and Jervis Spencer "Jerv" Janney, Jr., a real estate developer and jazz musician.Allison Janney profile at filmreference.com; accessed February 25, 2014."MACY B. PUTNAM ENGAGED TO WED; Bennett Alumna Is Fiancee of Jervis S. Janney Jr., a Graduate of Princeton" December 15, 1956, New York Times. She is one of three siblings. Janney attended the Miami Valley School in Dayton, where she was named a distinguished alumna in 2005, and the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where she was named Alumna of the Year in 2016. She then attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. At Kenyon, she studied with Paul Newman, an alumnus of Kenyon. He directed her in a play as the inaugural event of the school's newly dedicated Bolton Theater. Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, encouraged Janney to continue acting. She then went on to train at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York and did summer programs at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She attended The Neighborhood Playhouse the same years as actor Dylan McDermott. She completed two years at the Neighborhood Playhouse along with Steven Rogers. References Category:1959 births Category:20th-century American actresses Category:21st-century American actresses Category:Actresses from Boston Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:American film actresses Category:American musical theatre actresses Category:American soap opera actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:American television actresses Category:American voice actresses Category:Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award winners Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Living people Category:Hotchkiss School alumni Category:Kenyon College alumni Category:Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre alumni Category:Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Actresses from Dayton, Ohio Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actress AACTA International Award winners Category:Independent Spirit Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners